Walker Lewis
Encyclopedia
Walker Lewis was an early African American
abolitionist, Freemason, and Mormon elder from Massachusetts
.
to Peter P. Lewis and Minor Walker Lewis. His full name was Kwaku Walker Lewis, named after his maternal uncle, Kwaku Walker
. (Kwaku means "boy born on Wednesday" in Ghanaian
)
Lewis was one of nine children raised in an educated, socially committed, politically active, and well-connected middle-class black family. While Walker was still a young boy, Peter and Minor Lewis moved their family to Cambridge
. Walker Lewis became a successful barber and earned enough money to purchase a residential and commercial building in nearby Boston
.
In March 1826, Lewis married Elizabeth Lovejoy (the mixed-race daughter of Peter Lovejoy, who was black, and Lydia Greenleaf Bradford, who was white
.) Their first child Enoch Lovejoy Lewis was born in June. Lewis moved his young family to Lowell
, where the burgeoning industrial revolution
was bringing new wealth to the state through the textile mills. In Lowell, together with his brother-in-law John Levy, Lewis opened a barbershop on Merrimack Street. Eventually they purchased a two-family home in the Centralville section of Lowell.
).
Around the time of his marriage to Elizabeth Lovejoy in 1826, Lewis and Thomas Dalton
helped organize the Massachusetts General Colored Association
(MGCA), the first such all-black organization in the United States. In 1829, the MGCA helped David Walker
(no relation) to publish the radical, 76-page Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World, which demanded unconditional and immediate emancipation of all slaves in the USA. Lewis arranged for the Boston printer who published the Articles for the African Grand Lodge, to print the controversial Appeal. In 1831, Lewis served as President of the African Humane Society in Boston, which provided funeral expenses for the poor, assisted widows, built the African School in Boston. The African Humane Society also sponsored a "settlement project" for African Americans who wanted to emigrate to settle in Liberia
. When the ship sailed in 1813 its manifest contained most of the members of Hiram Lodge No. 3 of Providence, Rhode Island
(chartered by Grand Master Prince Hall
of African Grand Lodge in 1797).
In Lowell during 1840s and 1850s, Lewis's home was a stop on the Underground Railroad
. For some time, he sheltered the escaped slave
from Virginia, Nathaniel Booth, who settled in Lowell in 1844. Until 1850 Booth had a barber shop, but went to Canada after passage of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850
. Later he returned to Lowell.
Lewis and many of his siblings and their families were actively involved in the abolition and equal rights movement throughout Massachusetts and the Northeast.
, officially converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It is believed he was baptized by Apostle Parley P. Pratt
. One year later, in the summer of 1843, Lewis was ordained an Elder in the church by William Smith, an Apostle and brother to the founder Joseph Smith
. Lewis became the third black man known to hold the Mormon priesthood. (The first two were Elijah Abel
and a man only known as Black Pete).
Walker's firstborn son, Enoch Lovejoy Lewis, also joined the Church, but probably did not hold the priesthood. On September 18, 1846, Enoch married a white Mormon woman, Mary Matilda Webster, in Cambridge. They lived in Lowell, where Enoch ran a used clothing store (mainly to assist escaping slaves to change their appearances with new and better clothing). His father Walker would barber
their hair into different hairstyles to further disguise them.
. He found that the most prominent Mormon was Walker Lewis, an African-American abolitionist who was ordained as an Elder. Learning that Lewis's son had married a white Mormon woman seemed to upset Appleby. He wrote to Brigham Young about it and later reported in person.
Young in 1863 said,
After settling in Utah in 1848, Young announced a ban that prohibited all men of black African descent from holding the priesthood. In addition, he prohibited Mormons of African descent from participating in Mormon temple rites, such as the Endowment
or sealing. These racial restrictions remained in place until 1978, when the policy was rescinded by President of the Church Spencer W. Kimball
.
. Lewis left Massachusetts at the end of March 1851 and arrived in Salt Lake City about October 1. He received his Patriarchal Blessing
by the hands of Patriarch John Smith, an uncle of Joseph Smith. After arriving, he asked Jane Elizabeth Manning James
, a black Mormon from Connecticut
, to marry him as his polygamous wife, but she declined. Lewis was ignored by his fellow Mormons. The missionaries and Apostles who had stayed in his home and with whom he had worked so closely while in Massachusetts refused to acknowledge his presence once he was in Salt Lake City.
Two months after Walker's arrival, Brigham Young lobbied for, and the Utah Territorial Legislature (composed only of high-ranking Mormon leaders) obediently passed, the "Act in Relation to Service." This new territorial law made slavery legal in the territory of Utah, and Section Four of the statute provided punishment for "any white person... guilty of sexual intercourse
with any of the African race," regardless of their being married, consenting adults. The anti-miscegenation law was not repealed in Utah until the 1960s, although enforcement had ceased well before that.
After six months in Salt Lake, Walker Lewis left with the spring thaw and returned to Lowell. His family had more difficult times; his daughter-in-law Mary Matilda Webster Lewis died from "exhaustion" just after Christmas 1852 in the State Hospital at Worcester
. His son, the widower Enoch Lewis, married the African American Elisa Richardson Shorter in 1853, but Enoch was suffering from a severe mental illness.
). He was buried in the family lot in the Lowell Cemetery
.
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
abolitionist, Freemason, and Mormon elder from Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
.
Family and personal history
Lewis was born Friday, August 3, 1798 in Barre, MassachusettsBarre, Massachusetts
Barre is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 5,398 at the 2010 census.-History:Originally called the Northwest District of Rutland, it was first settled in 1720. The town was incorporated on June 17, 1774, as Hutchinson after Thomas Hutchinson, colonial...
to Peter P. Lewis and Minor Walker Lewis. His full name was Kwaku Walker Lewis, named after his maternal uncle, Kwaku Walker
Quock Walker
Quock Walker, also known as Kwaku or Quok Walker , was an American slave who sued for and won his freedom in June 1781 in a case citing language in the new Massachusetts Constitution that declared all men to be born free and equal...
. (Kwaku means "boy born on Wednesday" in Ghanaian
Languages of Ghana
Different sources give different figures for the number of languages of Ghana. This is because of different classifications of varieties as either languages or dialects. Ethnologue lists a total of 79 languages....
)
Lewis was one of nine children raised in an educated, socially committed, politically active, and well-connected middle-class black family. While Walker was still a young boy, Peter and Minor Lewis moved their family to Cambridge
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
. Walker Lewis became a successful barber and earned enough money to purchase a residential and commercial building in nearby Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
.
In March 1826, Lewis married Elizabeth Lovejoy (the mixed-race daughter of Peter Lovejoy, who was black, and Lydia Greenleaf Bradford, who was white
White people
White people is a term which usually refers to human beings characterized, at least in part, by the light pigmentation of their skin...
.) Their first child Enoch Lovejoy Lewis was born in June. Lewis moved his young family to Lowell
Lowell, Massachusetts
Lowell is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, USA. According to the 2010 census, the city's population was 106,519. It is the fourth largest city in the state. Lowell and Cambridge are the county seats of Middlesex County...
, where the burgeoning industrial revolution
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
was bringing new wealth to the state through the textile mills. In Lowell, together with his brother-in-law John Levy, Lewis opened a barbershop on Merrimack Street. Eventually they purchased a two-family home in the Centralville section of Lowell.
Freemasonry and abolitionism
While in Boston, Lewis was initiated into African Freemasonry about 1823, participating in Boston's African Lodge #459. In 1825, he became the sixth Master and a year later was its Senior Warden. After the African Lodge declared its independence from the Grand Lodge of London and became its own African Grand Lodge, Walker Lewis was the Grand Master of African Grand Lodge #1 for 1829 and 1830 (see: Prince Hall FreemasonryPrince Hall Freemasonry
Prince Hall Freemasonry derives from historical events which led to a tradition of separate predominantly African-American Freemasonry in North America...
).
Around the time of his marriage to Elizabeth Lovejoy in 1826, Lewis and Thomas Dalton
Thomas Dalton and Lucy Lew
Thomas Dalton and Lucy Lew were African Americans in Massachusetts.- Lucy Lew :Lucy Lew was born in Dracut, Massachusetts on May 7, 1790 one of 13 children. Her father, Barzillai Lew , born a free black, was a Revolutionary War soldier and a talented musician...
helped organize the Massachusetts General Colored Association
Massachusetts General Colored Association
The Massachusetts General Colored Association was organized in Boston in 1826 to combat slavery and racism.One of their most influential founders was David Walker, who probably expressed many of their ideas in his 1829 "Appeal in Four Articles to the Colored Citizens of the World". Walker had moved...
(MGCA), the first such all-black organization in the United States. In 1829, the MGCA helped David Walker
David Walker
-Musicians:* Dave Walker , British musician, member of the band Fleetwood Mac* David Walker , American opera singer* David Walker , American singer of Southern Gospel music...
(no relation) to publish the radical, 76-page Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World, which demanded unconditional and immediate emancipation of all slaves in the USA. Lewis arranged for the Boston printer who published the Articles for the African Grand Lodge, to print the controversial Appeal. In 1831, Lewis served as President of the African Humane Society in Boston, which provided funeral expenses for the poor, assisted widows, built the African School in Boston. The African Humane Society also sponsored a "settlement project" for African Americans who wanted to emigrate to settle in Liberia
Liberia
Liberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Sierra Leone on the west, Guinea on the north and Côte d'Ivoire on the east. Liberia's coastline is composed of mostly mangrove forests while the more sparsely populated inland consists of forests that open...
. When the ship sailed in 1813 its manifest contained most of the members of Hiram Lodge No. 3 of Providence, Rhode Island
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...
(chartered by Grand Master Prince Hall
Prince Hall
Prince Hall , was a tireless abolitionist and a leader of the free black community in Boston. Hall tried to gain New England’s enslaved and free blacks a place in some of the most crucial spheres of society, Freemasonry, education and the military...
of African Grand Lodge in 1797).
In Lowell during 1840s and 1850s, Lewis's home was a stop on the Underground Railroad
Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was an informal network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th-century black slaves in the United States to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause. The term is also applied to the abolitionists,...
. For some time, he sheltered the escaped slave
Fugitive slave
In the history of slavery in the United States, "fugitive slaves" were slaves who had escaped from their master to travel to a place where slavery was banned or illegal. Many went to northern territories including Pennsylvania and Massachusetts until the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was passed...
from Virginia, Nathaniel Booth, who settled in Lowell in 1844. Until 1850 Booth had a barber shop, but went to Canada after passage of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850
Fugitive Slave Law of 1850
The Fugitive Slave Law or Fugitive Slave Act was passed by the United States Congress on September 18, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850 between Southern slave holding interests and Northern Free-Soilers. This was one of the most controversial acts of the 1850 compromise and heightened...
. Later he returned to Lowell.
Lewis and many of his siblings and their families were actively involved in the abolition and equal rights movement throughout Massachusetts and the Northeast.
Conversion to Mormonism
Sometime about 1842, Lewis, who had worshipped with the Episcopal ChurchEpiscopal Church (United States)
The Episcopal Church is a mainline Anglican Christian church found mainly in the United States , but also in Honduras, Taiwan, Colombia, Ecuador, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, the British Virgin Islands and parts of Europe...
, officially converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It is believed he was baptized by Apostle Parley P. Pratt
Parley P. Pratt
Parley Parker Pratt, Sr. was a leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and an original member of Quorum of the Twelve Apostles from 1835 until his murder in 1857. He served in the Quorum with his younger brother, Orson Pratt...
. One year later, in the summer of 1843, Lewis was ordained an Elder in the church by William Smith, an Apostle and brother to the founder Joseph Smith
Joseph Smith
Joseph Smith was founder of what later became known as the Latter Day Saint movement or Mormons.Joseph Smith may also refer to:-Latter Day Saints:* Joseph Smith, Sr. , father of Joseph Smith...
. Lewis became the third black man known to hold the Mormon priesthood. (The first two were Elijah Abel
Elijah Abel
Elijah Abel was the first black elder and seventy in the Latter Day Saint movement, and one of the few black members in the early history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to receive the priesthood.-Life:...
and a man only known as Black Pete).
Walker's firstborn son, Enoch Lovejoy Lewis, also joined the Church, but probably did not hold the priesthood. On September 18, 1846, Enoch married a white Mormon woman, Mary Matilda Webster, in Cambridge. They lived in Lowell, where Enoch ran a used clothing store (mainly to assist escaping slaves to change their appearances with new and better clothing). His father Walker would barber
Barber
A barber is someone whose occupation is to cut any type of hair, and to shave or trim the beards of men. The place of work of a barber is generally called a barbershop....
their hair into different hairstyles to further disguise them.
Priesthood ban
In 1847 William Ivers Appleby, a conservative Mormon Elder, arrived in Lowell as a missionaryMissionary (LDS Church)
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is one of the most active modern practitioners of missionary work, with over 52,000 full-time missionaries worldwide, as of the end of 2010...
. He found that the most prominent Mormon was Walker Lewis, an African-American abolitionist who was ordained as an Elder. Learning that Lewis's son had married a white Mormon woman seemed to upset Appleby. He wrote to Brigham Young about it and later reported in person.
Young in 1863 said,
Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African race? If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of CainCain and AbelIn the Hebrew Bible, Cain and Abel are two sons of Adam and Eve. The Qur'an mentions the story, calling them the two sons of Adam only....
, the penalty, under the law of God, is death on the spot. This will always be so.
After settling in Utah in 1848, Young announced a ban that prohibited all men of black African descent from holding the priesthood. In addition, he prohibited Mormons of African descent from participating in Mormon temple rites, such as the Endowment
Endowment (Latter Day Saints)
In the theology of the Latter Day Saint movement, an endowment refers to a gift of "power from on high", typically associated with Latter Day Saint temples. The purpose and meaning of the endowment varied during the life of movement founder Joseph Smith, Jr...
or sealing. These racial restrictions remained in place until 1978, when the policy was rescinded by President of the Church Spencer W. Kimball
Spencer W. Kimball
Spencer Woolley Kimball was the twelfth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1973 until his death in 1985.-Ancestry:...
.
Moves
In 1850 Walker Lewis decided to migrate to Utah to be with the main body of the Latter Day Saint movementLatter Day Saint movement
The Latter Day Saint movement is a group of independent churches tracing their origin to a Christian primitivist movement founded by Joseph Smith, Jr. in the late 1820s. Collectively, these churches have over 14 million members...
. Lewis left Massachusetts at the end of March 1851 and arrived in Salt Lake City about October 1. He received his Patriarchal Blessing
Patriarchal blessing
In the Latter Day Saint movement, a patriarchal blessing is a blessing or ordinance given by a patriarch to a church member. Patriarchal blessings are modeled after the blessing given by Jacob to each of his sons prior to his death...
by the hands of Patriarch John Smith, an uncle of Joseph Smith. After arriving, he asked Jane Elizabeth Manning James
Jane Elizabeth Manning James
Jane Elizabeth Manning James was an early African American member of the Latter Day Saint movement who lived with Joseph Smith, Jr. and his family for a time in Nauvoo, Illinois....
, a black Mormon from Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
, to marry him as his polygamous wife, but she declined. Lewis was ignored by his fellow Mormons. The missionaries and Apostles who had stayed in his home and with whom he had worked so closely while in Massachusetts refused to acknowledge his presence once he was in Salt Lake City.
Two months after Walker's arrival, Brigham Young lobbied for, and the Utah Territorial Legislature (composed only of high-ranking Mormon leaders) obediently passed, the "Act in Relation to Service." This new territorial law made slavery legal in the territory of Utah, and Section Four of the statute provided punishment for "any white person... guilty of sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse, also known as copulation or coitus, commonly refers to the act in which a male's penis enters a female's vagina for the purposes of sexual pleasure or reproduction. The entities may be of opposite sexes, or they may be hermaphroditic, as is the case with snails...
with any of the African race," regardless of their being married, consenting adults. The anti-miscegenation law was not repealed in Utah until the 1960s, although enforcement had ceased well before that.
After six months in Salt Lake, Walker Lewis left with the spring thaw and returned to Lowell. His family had more difficult times; his daughter-in-law Mary Matilda Webster Lewis died from "exhaustion" just after Christmas 1852 in the State Hospital at Worcester
Worcester, Massachusetts
Worcester is a city and the county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, as of the 2010 Census the city's population is 181,045, making it the second largest city in New England after Boston....
. His son, the widower Enoch Lewis, married the African American Elisa Richardson Shorter in 1853, but Enoch was suffering from a severe mental illness.
Death
Lewis died on October 26, 1856 in Lowell of "consumption" (tuberculosisTuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
). He was buried in the family lot in the Lowell Cemetery
Lowell Cemetery
Lowell Cemetery is a cemetery located in Lowell, Massachusetts. Founded in 1841 and located on the banks of the Concord River, the cemetery is one of the oldest garden cemeteries in the nation, inspired by Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts...
.
See also
- Blacks and the Latter Day Saint movement
External links
- "Quock Walker Case: End of Slavery", Massachusetts Historical Society]
- "Quock Walker Case", Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
- "Quock Walker Case", Africans in America, PBS/WGBH
- "Profiles in Courage: African Americans in Lowell" by Martha Mayo, Center for Lowell History, University of Massachusetts LowellUniversity of Massachusetts LowellThe University of Massachusetts Lowell is a public university in Lowell, Massachusetts, and part of the University of Massachusetts system...